Eating Their Inheritance

There is a disturbing report that lemurs are being eaten as bushmeat on the island of Madagascar to a much greater extent than in the immediate past (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16138206). This is said to be largely the result of an influx of humans to the island who challenge the earlier tradition of the islanders that the lemurs are representative of human ancestors (and hence there was a taboo in terms of eating them). Decimation of the lemurs in their unique stronghold would greatly impoverish the biota. Strange how 'free meat' can have that effect.